Denmark Derby: Karen Blixen’s House…

Bet you didn’t think I’d be back with another Denmark Derby so soon but after yesterday’s post on Babette’s Feast, I couldn’t not show the trip out to her house pretty much right away. The more I’ve been learning about Karen Blixen and her life, even beyond the Out of Africa days which I already have a weakness for, the more I want to know of her still… I should have really like to have met her and I as mentioned yesterday, there’s something about her and her writing that draws me to her as kind of a kindred spirit… I think it’s that sense of adventure that she had while still holding a nostalgic, more romantic streak…

In re-watching Out of Africa now, I’m amazed now by the first scene in the movie which is the hunting scene in Klampenborg. Previously, I think I pretty much completely forgot that scene even existed, but now, I attach to since Klampenborg is basically right down the street from my house…Across the movie Karen strikes me at once as being “so Danish” about certain things, and yet so “not Danish” as well, just based on my few months here. And even though she was Danish herself, she always mentioned that there was something in her spirit that made her want to go out and see other things and to see where she belonged. Even after she returned from Africa, with adventures of that kind, there was something about her that just didn’t belong in Denmark (or at least, that’s what others thought) so as an outsider myself here, I can definitely identify. On a separate note, I read in a Lonely Planet that she also insisted after returning from Africa that everyone still refer to her as Baroness – decidedly NOT Danish. But if you watch the interpretation of her character in Out of Africa, there are many times where she defies hierarchy or established norms towards a more horizontal approach of access and level, and that would certainly be Danish. It’s always interesting how much our outside circumstances can affect the perceptions of who we are or who we are not…

Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures inside the house – I was disappointed but at the same time, sometimes that absence of taking pictures makes us participate more fully in what’s right in front of us. That nostalgic, romantic streak I mentioned above? I have it…big time. Especially when it relates to real people with real adventures. I teared up twice…once when you pass her study, outfitted on the walls with Masai shields and another few souvenirs from Kenya, and a silver framed photo of Dennys Finch-Hatton sitting in the corner of the window by her writing desk, just as she had it when she lived there. It’s just the single photo, but still in the open – meeting and defying convention for the time all at once. And I can’t imagine that on those colder days of the Danish winter, especially as that was the only heated room in the house, next to the ocean with those winds and gray skies, how far, far away that must have felt from her legendary “I had a farm in Africa” days…

The second moment was in the annex upstairs where they’ve laid out a few of her personal effects on display…you’ll notice photographs on the wall of Farah…Kamante…those were all real people..and then in the middle of the room, right in front of two campaign style safari chairs is the gramophone. THE gramophone, the same one, from Africa, given to her by Denys…There’s something very touching that she brought that all the way back after having to sell just about everything else – it was a possession of course, but now, when people own multiple ipods, phones, and so many other things that play music, to have been given the gift of music that could travel, from someone so meaningful, it just struck me.

She is buried outside of the house some distance back and the land, which along with the house belonged to her mother, has been set aside as an aviary, home to over 200 of Denmark’s birds. When walking around you’ll see colorful little bird houses tacked up for them to visit.

But perhaps the most interesting thing I learned was when we passed by a video of Karen Blixen telling a story, in Danish, on national television at the time. Once she returned, she would tell stories on TV and radio so that scene at the dinner with Denys and Barclay? That wasn’t just for the movie, that was a real gift of hers – I always knew she told stories well on paper but apparently, telling them live was also one of her true gifts. Yes, I think I really would have liked to have known her in person.

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